Maryam Abdelgwad
Maryam is a senior associate of the regional law firm, BREMER, and part of the firms Antitrust & Merger Control team. She specialises in competition and foreign direct investment (FDI) regulations of Kuwait and the larger Middle East, and advises international corporates on merger control and antitrust as well as FDI matters including investment protection. She works in English and Arabic languages.
Practice Area
Panel
- Contributing Author
Qualified Year
- 2018
Membership
- Egyptian Bar Association
Qualification
- LLB (2018)
Education
- Cairo University (2018)
3 Contributions by Maryam Abdelgwad
PRACTICE NOTES
Kuwait FDI regime overview: KDIPA licensing, negative list, incentives, procedures, penalties and merger control interaction
1. What is the applicable legislation?
The main legislation applicable to foreign investment comprises Kuwait Direct Investment Promotion Authority Law 116/2013 (FDI Law 2013) together with Ministerial Decision 502/2014 issuing the Executive Regulations to implement Law 116/2013 on promoting direct investment in the State of Kuwait. Beyond these core FDI instruments, several other enactments may apply depending on how the investment is structured. Chief among these are the Companies Law 1/2016, the Capital Markets Authority Law 7/2010, and the Commercial Agencies Law 13/2016, alongside their respective executive regulations. In broad terms, Kuwait’s FDI framework is still relatively undeveloped. The system largely follows a traditional model for supervising foreign investment, concentrating on prohibiting non-nationals from conducting or funding certain activities, or on imposing heightened regulatory obligations on overseas investors. A comprehensive FDI screening mechanism, of the type found in many EU jurisdictions, is absent in Kuwait. Various statements from the Kuwaiti government and certain authorities have hinted that changes to the FDI framework are on the way. Nevertheless, no draft legislation or regulations have been released, and there is no specific clarity on the content of such reforms or the timeline for their entry into force to the public so far...
Competition
PRACTICE NOTES
Kuwait Merger Control: Thresholds, Local Effects, Foreign-to-Foreign, Waiver Process, Filing Mechanics, Timelines, Standstill and Sanctions
Note—To check whether notification thresholds in Kuwait and worldwide are triggered, refer to Where to Notify.
1. Have there been any recent developments regarding the Kuwaiti merger control regime and are any updates/developments expected in the coming year? Are there any other ‘hot’ merger control issues in Kuwait?
From late 2020, Kuwait began a major overhaul of its merger control framework, which came into effect in the latter half of 2021. In November 2020, the legislator enacted Law 72/2020 on the Protection of Competition (Competition Law 2020). Among other amendments, it replaced market share criteria with turnover- and asset value-based filing thresholds. Additional clarification on the new regime was set out in Decree 14/2021 on the Executive Regulation to the Competition Law (Executive Regulations 2021). However, neither the Competition Law 2020 nor the Executive Regulations 2021 specified the notification thresholds. Those figures were subsequently determined by Ministerial Decree 26/2021, issued on 23 September 2021. Alongside the move from market share to turnover and asset value-based thresholds, the Competition Law 2020 broadened the scope of Kuwait’s merger control rules to capture foreign-to-foreign transactions...
Competition
PRACTICE NOTES
UAE foreign investment and merger control: decentralised approvals, sectoral ownership limits and green lists under Companies Law 2021; evolving turnover thresholds and procedures under Competition Law 2023
1. What is the applicable legislation?
Federal Law 32/2021 on Commercial Companies (Companies Law 2021) is the primary statute regulating the United Arab Emirates (UAE) foreign direct investment framework. Issued at the close of 2021, it formed part of wider federal reforms designed to modernise the UAE’s legal landscape across multiple fields and to attract overseas capital. The Companies Law 2021 superseded both Federal Law 2/2015 on Commercial Companies (the Old Companies Law 2015) and Federal Law 19/2018 on Foreign Direct Investment. Traditionally, UAE legislation mandated that UAE nationals hold a majority interest in all onshore UAE companies, with foreign ownership limited to 49%. From 27 September 2020, Federal Decree 26/2020 amended the Old Companies Law 2015, permitting up to 100% foreign ownership of onshore entities in defined circumstances. Taking effect on 2 January 2022, the Companies Law 2021, which replaced the Old Companies Law 2015, continues to allow up to 100% foreign ownership for onshore UAE companies. The UAE legislature has also introduced fresh incentives to spur FDI, including further easing of foreign ownership limits in a range of sectors...
Competition
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